Are we supposed to be able to play right now? The game acts like it's going to send me in, but it just keeps booting me back to the main screen. Is this the last bug you mentioned?

Steam isn't loading the game for me.

I believe in this game. Both parties have good reasons to want this game to be successful, and we're slowly removing the things hindering that progress. There's been improvement over the years. Maybe not enough for some, but I believe in Asylum.

Ah, my apologies. My two other points still hold, though. Thank you for the information.

I'm sorry for being blunt, but once you gave them that $250, whatever happened to it after was not under your control. The money we put into this game was in pure faith, to support a product we could not see but trusted would exist. The product we currently have is flawed, but our support was not for the first thing we saw. It's for that final product. This isn't the game, this is a beta module. Once we claimed our keys, we had vowed to see this to the end. You took your key, and so you're bound just like anyone else. I'm sorry you regret it, but there isn't much to say in way of comfort here. If your problem is you don't like your money going to what you see now, then try to think about the final step here, not the first. Imagine someone wants to bake a cake. They don't have the ingredients, so they ask people for them. People chip in and give them sugar, baking soda, eggs, all the works. You want a cake. The cake they are saying they want to bake sounds tasty, so you buy a nice bag of flour and give it to them. The person says they'll make a cake and goes to the kitchen. Later on, you all go to check and see how the cake is doing. The person is mixing the ingredients together. That's not a cake. You ask for that flour back, because you're hungry now and you can't eat what's in the bowl. You no logner want him using the flour because that mixture isn't cake. All the flour was used, though, and you can't get any back. While the flour is gone, the hope of a good cake is still real. The person just needs to finish.

The servers are down. No one can play right now. It's beign worked on, and we should have it back up soon.

Even if you've lost faith in this game, there are real people on the development team. Please still treat them as decent human beings. That's the very least people can do. I believe in them. Keep on, Devs, you have my support.

Servers are down right now, so that's why you can't play. This can't be a prank for three big reasons: 1. Steam, a highly reputable and respected company, has agreed to license and publish this game. If Steam thought this game was going to mess with us all, they wouldn't release it. They wouldn't gain enough money to repair the damage it would do to their reputation. Steam has bad games, but a bad game is different from a prank or scam. 2. The Devs entire livelihoods depend on this going well. Sure, they made a ton of cash, but they've been using it for this game. We're seeing content, and that has to come from somewhere. We know they're paying people and have a team. They didn't take the money and go golfing. If this was a scam, then the funds would stop coming once everyone caught on. You can't fool people forever. Putting it on Steam was the exact moment this couldn' be a sham anymore. We'd realize it was fake the moment we got to play, then money would stop coming. it this wasn't real then steam would never be involved. If they dangled it above us, then I'd be more inclined to believe it wasn't really what they said it was. Their careers would be over if they messed with all of us. 3.There are a lot of people supporting this. A lot of unnamed, unknown people, who could be able to do anything. What if a very powerful, affluent person was scammed? What would they do to Asylum? Even throngs of irate, offended people are threatening on the internet. We're too much of an unknown variable to toy with. Of course, if you don't agree with me, I understand. This is what I firmly believe, though.

You're probably going to have to find some people dedicated to RPing at this point right now, and wait until people can actually play. Once things settle down, it should get better.

They made many mistakes, and we made many mistakes. There were rumors, misconceptions, and just miscommunication on varying levels. This game means far too much to all parties involved for it to stay like this. Asylum's entire livelihood depends on this game at least satisfying those who've already supported it. They can't fail this. If they do, it's all over for them. They know this. They've delayed and patched and delayed and patched over and over because this needed to go well. Meanwhile, the fanbase is clamoring for a release, getting angry, and really not being in the background. I'm not trying to say Asylum is an innocent victim, and we are their bullies, kicking their body on the curb over and over. Neither party here, us or them, are blameless. People got angry. They have a right to. Asylum panicked, and handled things wonkily. People do that. We were all just being humans, but we forgot that. Asylum had to get this right, so they were already pressured. Combined with repeated errors and constant criticism from their backers, I'm not surprised it seems they've become a bit fearful of our reactions. A lot of people would be. On the other hand, the supporters have a very good reason, actually, many good reasons, to have behaved as such. Do I think it's right? No. Do I want us to keep doing it? Absolutely not, not to this degree. However, do I think we were unjustified? No. Asylum lied, misdirected, and upset a lot of people. They tried to do damage control later on, but with such a large group of people, when someone starts crying out, a lot of people tend to follow. It was easy to berate the Devs. While, of course, there were always a smattering of people trying to quell the masses, we were treated as fools, and that probably drove away that positivity. It was almost like the Devs and the fandom were circling each other, trying to see who was going to strike first, only to trip and impale themselves instead. We waited for the Devs to give us content, then tore it to shreds to see what we liked and didn't like. If we were displeased, they'd learn very quickly. People were getting angry and impatient. Time will do that, but it never justifies attacking people. Meanwhile, the Devs were always watching to see how we reacted. Most of the time, it was just grumbling, and when content came, it became fresh, hot anger at whatever people thought was wrong. That would scare anyone, so they started silencing those they believed they could. Then we got scared. What do you do when you're scared? Run away or fight. This is the internet. Not a lot of people run away, here. There's no real threat. It's so easy to just lash out and fire back when you feel wronged here. Both sides started feeling wronged. I think I'm digressing far too much, so I'm going to come back to my main point here. A lot of mistakes were made. Bad mistakes, small mistakes, you name it. Both parties messed up. Neither is a victim, but neither is an abuser. We put our money into this. There is no going back. We can't change that. We either keep fighting the people who have no choice now but to deliver at least a satisfactory product, or we try to limit ourselves and see if we can work together like we should. We all want this game to come out and be good. We're all people. We're going to be goofs. Let's just be goofs together, and try to pick each other up when we fall. Let the Devs hear some support more often. Devs, please don't silence those who are scared and concerned. Reach out to us first, and if that goes badly, then you can do what you feel needs to be done. Don't be afraid of your own supporters. It's hard to trust where there is no trust.

Huh, I never realized that. That's kinda cool!

Not quite sure you expected a follow-up, but I assure you I am no game developer.

And by no means do I believe you are wrong to feel that way. I may not be as upset as you, but I too am not pleased. I just want to remain hopeful things will be righted soon enough. : )

I 100% agree with you on that. No matter who it is or wat they're doing, seeing such harsh backlash will interfere with at least something. As I've been told, never criticize unless you have a solution, or an alternative. A lot of anger has just devolved into the developers being inept at something they've dedicated years of their lives to.

I share your feelings on this about the game, Stethepea. When it's out, it will be lovely, and I'm excited. Not everyone feels the way I do, and with such a large group sharing that feeling, I can't help but think there's certainly a reason for it. Things got messy very early on, and so it started making it harder to have optimistic supporters for this game. People had misconceptions, and Asylum wasn't always the best at handling the fans. I think people have a reason to be upset right now. We were promised a date, after a very long time, and it arrived. That was good. It is good, actually. The problem is after waiting so long, a lot of people expected more substance. Now, I'm not saying Asylum is to blame for that, because we raised our own expectations regardless of what Asylum said or did. Hopefully this will pacify itself to the usual grumbles. Until then, as people are getting excited and shot down, we're going to see some anger.

I agree in principal essentially, but your phrasing brings me pause. Those who are angry have a right to be angry for the most part. I'm not angry. Never have been. Everyone reacts differently, and with a large group such as this all being affected by the same things, there are going to be a lot of different reactions. Sometimes it's easier to latch onto the very open, angry response in hopes of solving the issue. I believe in this team, I think this wil be fixed. Do I believe some people are being a little more emotional than I deem proper? Yes, but I think they have a right to do that. A part of catering to humans is acknowledging we're very hard to please as a group.

Don't mind the tunes, the customization has me a bit down, though.

Oh, no! I am not trying to imply it was a company's fault. Steam had no hand in game development, so they shouldn't be held accountable. The servers went down due to bugs and crashes, which Steam couldn't do a single thing to fix. For Asylum, perhaps they had a better chance of preventing this, but sometimes we just can't make something fool-proof. If they knew this was going to happen, they'd have done things differently. Asylum certainly goofed a bit, but I don't think it was entirely their fault, nor do I think it was anyone's soul fault.

I believe the youtuber TheDynasty has some footage, but I could be wrong.

You are by no means incorrect, but I have seem certain games that just messed up a bit on release. I don't like the fact we can't play today, but considering Steam, a reputable business company, is completely fine with their actions, I think there's something going on that wasn't entirely Asylum's fault. Perhaps they simply could not have prevented it beforehand.

I say it is temporary because it's glitchy, we are displeased, and this clearly isn't the scope of what the game fully intends to bring us. If the consumer is dissatisfied, and there are clear issues that can be resolved, I see no reason to believe Asylum will turn a blind eye. They only have things to gain by improving this system. And this is only a beta. If this was the full game, your point would hold more merit. I don't believe customization was their top priority; that would most likely go towards stability and gameplay. Perhaps they figured this would be acceptable long enough to get groundwork in. I don't like it, but I sincerely believe there are more reasons for why this system is in place other than, to reword your phrase, they did a bad job. I apologize if I sound harsh, I am just trying to reaffirm my stance.

Servers are down right now. Things like this happen on release. Most likely, an influx of activity that the server wasn't ready to handle shot it down. it's being worked on, so things shall be fixed soon.

I am not one to usually complain, but I have to admit, I felt my excitement drain a bit while designing my character. It was extremely limited. I have faith that this will be improved, and is only temporary, but it still hurts a bit. No long hair? Really? I assume this is a hair style we'll get to grab, but I didn't think that getting a good base human would cost effort. It feels like I might have to work to make myself, rather than work to give myself luxuries and comforts.

That explains why I couldn't join the game. I thought the game had bugged.

If you have the beta access, you need to go to your actual Identity profile (not this one), check to make sure your Steam account is linked, redeem your key, and head up to steam, click the games tab, ender the key in, and bada-bing-bada-boom you're on your merry way.